Strip identifying details from a document and set your assistant to keep less of what you share.
Pick one page of a financial document you want an assistant to explain, such as a policy letter or a loan offer, and make a copy to work on, leaving the original untouched. You are going to turn that copy into a version an assistant can explain properly without learning who you are.
Redaction means making a version of a document that keeps the meaning and removes everything that identifies you. Once it is a habit it takes a couple of minutes, and together with the right assistant settings it covers most of the risk.
Priya, who cleaned up her assistant history in lesson 7.1, "What never goes into an assistant", still had a real question about her insurance. Her policy renewal letter mentioned a premium change and a revised benefit schedule, and she wanted an assistant to explain one page of it. The top of the page showed her name, policy number, address and date of birth. Last year she would have pasted it in unchanged, but this time she wanted a version that kept the meaning without the identifying details.
Her name became POLICYHOLDER and her policy number became POLICY 1. Her address was deleted, because the explanation did not need it. Her date of birth became "age 31" (an invented example, like Priya's other figures here), since the premium depended on her age but not on the exact date. The finished page had six placeholders and no address, and the explanation she got back was as useful as it would have been with her details included.
A placeholder is a label that replaces an identifying detail and keeps its role. Placeholders work better than deleting everything because the assistant can still follow the logic: "POLICYHOLDER pays the premium to INSURER on behalf of INSURED PERSON" is clear, while the same sentence with blanks is hard to follow. When a document mentions several people or accounts, number them as ACCOUNT 1, ACCOUNT 2, CHILD A and CHILD B, and use the same label for the same thing every time. Details the explanation does not need, like Priya's address, can be deleted outright, and others can be cut down to the part that matters, such as an age in place of a full date of birth.
Balances are usually not needed at all. Keep other amounts only if the explanation needs them, and consider whether the exact figure matters. If you only want to understand how a premium is calculated, a premium of S$1,284.60 can become "about S$1,300".
Drawing a black rectangle over parts of a PDF, or cropping a screenshot, often does not work as redaction. Most PDFs from banks and insurers have a text layer, meaning the words are stored as text underneath what you see on the page. The box hides the words visually but the text stays in the file, where an assistant reading the uploaded PDF can read it, including whatever sits under the box, and so can anyone who copies and pastes from the file.
A cropped screenshot is safer because it is an image, but assistants that handle pictures can still read images, and it is easy to leave a name in a corner or in a reflection.
The reliable method is not to upload the document at all. Copy only the clause, table or paragraph you need into a blank document or note, redact it there with placeholders, read the result once from top to bottom, and only then paste it into the assistant. Working this way, you control every word that leaves your device.
Many assistants let you turn off the use of your conversations for training future models, usually in the privacy or data controls section of settings. Turning it off does not stop the provider storing your chats; it only limits one use of them. Many also offer a temporary or private chat mode, where the conversation is not saved to your history or is deleted after a short period. Use that mode as your default for any money question, even a redacted one.
The names, locations and exact effects of these settings differ between providers and change over time, so check the current settings in the assistant you use rather than relying on any description, including this one. Using an assistant through your employer changes things, and Working with AI assistants, lesson 8.2, "Data settings and the rules at your workplace", covers data settings in more depth.
The provider's privacy policy is the only reliable source on what happens to your conversations and files. You do not need to read all of it: search it for "retain", "delete" and "training", and look for how long conversations and uploaded files are kept and what happens when they are deleted. Some providers keep deleted content for a set period, and some keep files separately from chats. The policy can change, so re-check it once a year.
Write your findings in a sentence or two. That note becomes part of the rules you write in lesson 7.4, "Write your personal AI money rules".
You probably have a page in mind already, and an assistant whose settings menu you have never opened. Redact that page on your copy, then open the settings, turn off training, start a temporary chat, and note the retention and deletion rules from the privacy policy.
Take one real statement or policy page and redact it into a safe version. Then change at least one privacy setting on your assistant.
Junxiong-WFG Organisation is an authorised representative of AIA Financial Advisers Private Limited (Reg. No. 201715016G).